TVSquad

• At 8, ABC has a new Opportunity Knocks, then a new Dancing with the Stars and the special Half The Size.
• CBS has a new NCIS, followed by new episodes of The Mentalist and Without A Trace.
• NBC has a new Biggest Loser at 8, followed by a new Law and Order: SVU.
• FOX has two new episodes of House and Fringe.
• There's a new 90210 on The CW at 8, then a new Privileged.
• TCM has Lassie Come Home at 8, then Meet John Doe.
• Also at 8: ESPN has two new episodes of The World Series of Poker.
• At 9, PBS has a new P.O.V.
• Food Network has a new episode of Food Detectives at 9.
• At 10, A&E has a new episode of The Cleaner.
• FX has a new episode of The Shield at 10.
• MTV has the series premiere of Paris Hilton's My New BFF at 10.
• Bravo has a new Rachel Zoe Show at 10.
• Travel Channel has a new Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern.
• IFC has a new episode of The IT Crowd.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk show listings.

After years of reaching US audiences as only a series of forwarded video clips and teh internetz, the original Channel 4 British sitcom The IT Crowd is finally coming to American TV. The IFC Channel has picked up the series and will begin airing it September 29.

I had to make an extra point to specify that this is the UK IT Crowd and not the NBC remake starring original cast member Richard Ayoade and Joel McHale. No, no, that project is still dead. As much as I love Ayoade and McHale, I couldn't help but feel a little relieved that the show didn't take off. I'd rather get my fix from Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and The Soup than see them attempt to tip-toe through that dangerous territory of American remakes.

The script for the IT Crowd's third season has just been completed, and folks from the show are looking for some help to dress up the set. Calling all geeks with decent knowledge in pop culture! If you've never seen the show before, it's basically the geekiest show about IT guys in the history of British programming. "Did you turn it off and on?" is a recurring joke, so that should say enough.

Is that a throne Rob Thomas is sitting on? Seems like he's quickly becoming King of TV! The prolific scribe is quite literally sitting in the catbird seat. ABC has just greenlit another Rob Thomas pilot, that's his third -- but who's counting? It follows ABC's resurrection of Cupid and a Beverly Hills, 90210 spinoff for the CW. The latest Rob Thomas opus is an import based on the New Zealand TV series Outrageous Fortune.

Outrageous Fortune is a one-hour dramedy is about a family of criminals. When the father is jailed for four years, the matriarch declares that it's time for the family to go straight. Thomas has written the pilot and will act as executive producer, along with John Barnett, Michael Larkin, Michael Goldstein, Bruce Cervi and John Lansing.

"Have you tried turning it off and on again?"

It would appear that the adaptation of UK sit-com The IT Crowd might need more than Roy's famous reboot fix. According to reports, NBC is set to pull the plug on the midseason comedy. If you haven't been playing along at home, the show is to be a joint production between Universal Media Studios and Freemantle Media. It's an ensemble comedy, set in an IT department, starring Joel McHale (The Soup) and Rocky Carroll (Invasion).

I think I'm the last Squadder to put out one of these lists, and there's a good reason for that. After the crush of the season finales and upfronts in May, I was happy to not be a regular watcher of anything in particular, except for Yankee games, so there seemed to be nothing for me to write about.

But when I really thought about it, that's not even close to being true. Despite the fact that it's summer, there's more than enough quality programming that I'm sure I'll get sucked into some weekly habits at some point. So, after the jump, here's what I plan on watching:

Joe Wiseman and Joe Port the two writers behind the upcoming NBC pilot The IT Crowd (based on the British series of the same name) have signed a deal with NBC Universal that will allow them to develop other projects for the network. The two men have previously written for series including Son of the Beach and Just Shoot Me.

David Guarascio and Moses Port (Joe's brother) will serve as executive producers on The IT Crowd. The original British series centers on three IT workers who are generally despised by the rest of the workers at Reynholm Industries in London and yet are crucial to keeping the company running smoothly. The Channel 4 series was quite a success across the pond, so naturally NBC wants to try and duplicate that success here.

Azureus has renamed its Zudeo BitTorrent client Vuze. Along with the name change comes a few new features like an improved search engine and a new navigation system. And more importantly, there's new high definition content from networks including Showtime and the BBC. Limited content was already available form A&E Networks, G4 TV, National Geographic, and Starz Media.

While most users probably think of BitTorrent clients as software for downloading TV shows and movies illegally, Vuze is all about partnering with networks and independent video producers to sell content.

And while there's not much premium content available right now, Azureus has snagged the right to distribute some interesting programming, including Showtime's Weeds, Dexter, and The L Word. Vuze will also distribute the BBC series Sorted, which is otherwise unavailable in the United States. This should come as good news to anyone hoping that other BBC content such as Life on Mars, or the original version of The IT Crowd might one day be distributed via Vuze or BBC's own online video service.

[via Ars Technica]

Last year, after multiple recommendations from my English friends, I got around to watching a few episodes of The IT Crowd. Unfortunately, it failed to live up to all the wild hype generated by my buddies, but something did stick in my mind... The crazy-haired, nasal Moss character, played by Richard Ayoade. There was something wonderfully weird about him and, since I was so intrigued by his strange voice, I decided to look him up. Well, as it turns out, his usual voice is really that weird and nasal, which just made him a million times more better in my mind. In fact, Ayoade's the only cast member who has been carried over from the original version of The IT Crowd to the American adaptation, reprising his role as Moss.

Does anyone really need another cop drama with procedural elements? NBC seems to think so. Personally, I would be all for a moratorium on all new dramas that feature cops, doctors, or lawyers. But I suppose if you they are going to create yet another of these shows, hiring David Shore, the creator of House, and adding Famke Janssen as the lead is a good place to start. Adam mentioned the show back in October. It still doesn't have an official title, but the addition of Janssen is a good sign that things are moving along. Or a bad sign, if you've had your fill of cops.

In other casting news at the peacock network, Rocky Carroll (Chicago Hope) has signed on to play the corporate boss in the pilot of The IT Crowd. A remake of a UK comedy, the show also features Joel McHale, Richard Ayoade, and Jessica St. Clair as the hapless IT team at a major corporation. The original was very funny, but you can flip a coin on how this is going to turn out. It's a tricky bit of business updating these shows for the American audience. Having Ayoade reprise his role as Moss can't hurt though.

There's not much information yet, but NBC is close to securing three new comedies set to air sometime next season. The first, I'm with Stupid, which I mentioned last month, is a re-tooling of a British series about a man who befriends a boy in a wheelchair and lives in a home for the disabled. The project is being helmed by directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly, along with Ben Silverman, who helped develop both The Office and Ugly Betty for American audiences.

Kath and Kim is based on an Australian series about a divorced mother and her daughter. Nancy Pimental, a former writer for South Park and a former co-host on Win Ben Stein's Money, penned the adaptation and will serve as executive producer with Silverman. The series, along with I'm with Stupid, is being developed for the Farrelly brother's Reveille production company.

Today marked the online premiere of the new U.K. Channel 4 sitcom, The IT Crowd. I'm an IT guy myself, so the curiosity overcame me, and I had to watch this first episode. In fact, if the premiere episode is any indication of what to expect, I may just keep on watching it. I just hope they keep providing them online, or I may be out of luck.

I really hate working in IT. Don't get me wrong, the work is challenging (when I get a chance to do that and not paperwork) and the people I work with are interesting, but all and all, it's a dreary experience, especially in the corporate world. Why? Because we're the red-headed stepchild of the corporate world, that's why. While people are on the upper floors, wearing their suits and starched Polo dress shirts, making deals and pushing the business along, the scruffy tech guys are holed up in a basement -- or noisy and cold datacenter -- isolated from the rest of the company except for the angry phone calls that cascade in when a middle manager can't get his or her e-mail. And there are usually no.... women.... anywhere. No one to flirt with, no one to discretely ogle as she walks down the aisle, nothing. It can get to be quite depressing.

So I'm intrigued by the announcement of a new sitcom on the UK's Channel 4. Called The IT Crowd, it focuses on three IT workers that toil away in the dingy basement of an elegant office bulding, being scorned and abused by the go-getters and high achievers that work above them, literally and figuratively.